E-Learning Accessibility for blind students

Recent Research Developments in Learning Technologies (00) 0 0 E-Learning Accessibility for blind students M.Arrigo *, Italian National Research Council - Institute for Educational Technology - Via Ugo la Malfa, - 0 Palermo, ITALY Since the middle of the 0s, the number of colleges and universities which provide courses and degree programs via distance education has been growing dramatically. The advantages of the online learning have been widely described in the literature. However, the prospective promised with the digital era often has not become the reality for most people with disabilities, especially in educational context. Some studies of the statistical accesses of distance education web pages of the major organizations for distance learning have revealed a high percentage of inaccessible pages. In this scenario where almost all universities which offer traditional programs have started to, or plan to offer distance education programs using the Internet, it is very important to redesign traditional pedagogical approaches by integrating information and communication technologies into courses. The aim of this paper is to introduce some studies about the accessibility of the e-learning and to introduce an online learning environment designed for blind students. Keywords Visually disabled students; online education; accessibility; Internet. Introduction In today s society, where information plays an important role, being able to use Information and Communication Technologies opens up opportunities for holding more responsible social positions. It is also more convenient for governments, institutions, public and private enterprises to use the Internet to provide information services. Moreover, ICT offers great opportunities of social inclusion. Technological development can enable people with disabilities to improve their quality of life [,,,, ]. They can accomplish tasks that would be impossible to do without the computer, such as: writing a letter, communicating, drawing a picture, etc. Moreover, the digitalization of many public services such as education (school, university), shopping, banking, library, or even sending a letter allows people with disabilities to live in much the same way as those who are not disabled. They can acquire an independent life and achieve social integration. However, the prospective promised with the digital era often has not become the reality for most people with disabilities. In educational context, since the middle of the 0s, the number of colleges and universities which provide courses and degree programs via distance education has been growing dramatically. The advantages of the online learning have been widely described in the literature. However, most literature concerns the Internet as an educational tool, and only in the last few years, have publications, in the core distance educational journals, addressed the issue of accessibility for people with disabilities in using online distance education environment []. As reported by Waits & Lewis [], % of US institutions that offered distance education courses in 000 00 did not know if their web sites followed accessibility guidelines, % followed the guidelines to a moderate extent and % followed the guidelines to a minor extent. Furthermore, Schmetzke [] reveals and high percentage of inaccessible pages for the major US organization for distance learning. These studies prove that most online educational environments are still not accessible to students with disabilities. While the information and activities posted to internet sites are not appropriately accessible with adaptive technology the blind and visually impaired people will not benefit from these online opportunities. In the next section, the author provides some advantages and disadvantages of Internet as an educational tool for students with disabilities. Then some consideration related to the accessibility of online * Corresponding author: e-mail: marco.arrigo@itd.cnr.it, Phone: + 000

M. Arrigo: E-Learning Accessibility for blind students 0 0 course for visual disabled people are reported. These considerations are followed by a presentation of an online learning environment designed for blind students.. Advantages and disadvantages of Internet for students with disabilities The advantages of using the Internet in the classroom are as diverse as the services offered by the network. The Internet for students is the largest and most diverse information source. Moreover, the Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), such as asynchronous communication (e-mail) and synchronous communication (chat) would give the learner the chance to participate actively in cooperative learning activities and to communicate easily with other learners. On major advantage of the CMC is they can play an important role in social relationship. In fact, for a person with a disability, the internet communication tools can be a viable opportunity to interact with others without having the other participant s preconceived notions of disability affecting the relationship []. Furthermore, the disabled are able to interact with others with similar interests and concerns. According to the Royal National Institute for the Blind [0] the internet is one of the most significant communication developments since the invention of Braille. For the first time ever, many blind and partially sighted people have access to the same wealth of information as sighted people and on the same terms. The digitalization of many public services such as education (school, university), government, may allow people with disabilities to live in much the same way as those who are not disabled. On the other hand, if the information and services provided by governments, institutions and public enterprises are not fully accessible, there is a serious risk they erect new barriers increasing the information gap and create a digital devide between those who can benefit from opportunities provided by ICT and those who cannot. Another disadvantage of the Internet for students with disabilities is s/he has to purchase special adaptive technology to make the computer accessible. The accessibility issue of the Internet could be posed in two ways. One way is to demand that Internet providers self-regulate their services in order to be accessible. However, this way is almost impossible to implement, because of cyberspace enormous and disconnected components. Moreover, users would often maintain the freedom of publishing. Another approach is to allow market forces to regulate the Internet because the number of users who need accessible information and services has grown significantly (users who need to access the net without GUI interface are in some ways like the blind users) [].. Considerations about e-learning accessibility There are two main aspects to take into account in designing the accessibility of the e-learning environments: technological and methodological issues. Both of them are vital for obtaining a fully accessible online learning environment. For example, an LMS which has some fully accessible tools for learning may be unsatisfactory for visually disabled users if the learning methodology was designed for sighted users. Thus, the enabling technologies are very important but not enough. Similarly, a well designed learning contents methodology, if not supported by a set of accessible tools, is not enough to allow the disabled students to learn on the net. The accessible learning management system presented in this paper, takes into account both aspects. It is based on the tool described in [, ] which includes and introduces some research about the design of the learning contents methodology for blind and visually impaired people.. Technologies The most frequently used network technologies in e-learning are email and the Web. Today the mail is still the most used service on the Internet. Because email is the main network communication tool it is extremely useful to include it as part of any e-learning environment. Although email presents no significant problems for users with disabilities, some research proposes techniques for improving email accessibility [].

m-icte00 http://www.formatex.org/micte00 0 0 Likewise, the web is the most used tool for accessing information on the Internet and it is the best solution for distributing educational material for e-learning. Despite WAI guidelines, Universal Design principles, ISO standards and government policies, many web pages are still inaccessible for the disabled. For example, blind users, and users who do not use GUI, for accessing the web cannot get an overview of the structure of a text with one quick glance at the screen. Thus these users can be lost in hyperspace very quickly. Producing a document overview is one of the main issues to be considered in an application for surfing the Web which has a vocal interface. Moreover, teachers and students can interact with each other using text chat in order to communicate in a synchronous way. Real-time chat communication is difficult to use for users who can not interact quickly with the computer, for example, who have limited hand function, learning disabilities or simple students who use mobile equipments. Moreover, some chat is inaccessible for visually disabled people. In [,, ] some considerations about the accessibility of the web and the communication service are reported and some tools for improving accessibility are presented.. Methodology In an educational context designing the content interaction is extremely important in order to reach a learning goal. Moreover, in online learning the methodology is crucial. For example, a tool may meet technical accessibility requirements, but it may be unusable for a blind student because it is designed with a visual interface in mind. Likewise, the design of a lesson could be perfect if it is delivered using a multimedia system, but may be poor if it uses adaptive technologies like a speech synthesizer. Therefore, it is very important to redesign traditional pedagogical approaches by integrating information and communication technologies into courses. The main steps we follow for e-learning accessibility are: accessibility goals for the education content, study of the disabilities of groups target, designing of the content to make sure they comply with the accessibility guidelines, system testing and monitoring of the e-learning platform usage.. An LMS for visual disable students The learning environment introduced is based on the tool described in [, ] which includes. In particular, all the learning resources are web-based and designed to make them easier to understand and to interact with. Moreover, in order to provide accessible materials for blind and vision impaired learners, we have designed a tool which helps teachers to test their online learning materials and expose and repair barriers to accessibility. The tool complies with the existing accessibility guidelines (such as WC's, WCAG and Section ).. The architecture The architecture of the system is based on the client-server model. Figure shows the framework functions and the system modules. The client-server communication is based on standard Internet protocols http and tcp/ip. All modules (server and client) have been developed in java language. The server provides search, chat and mail functions for client modules. Furthermore, most of the tools developed are client adaptable (they show a specific interface depending on user client: PDA, browser, mobile phone).. Some tools to give the internet a voice In order to support the blind students in their learning activities, we have provided some tools that, using a vocal interface, allow blind people to: use a synchronous (chat) and asynchronous (email) communication system, surf the Web, and to search for information on the internet. In fact, using the CMC tools the

M. Arrigo: E-Learning Accessibility for blind students 0 0 learners can realize their potential to participate fully in online collaborative educational activities. Figure shows the framework functions. All the tools developed can support multiple languages including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, so the user who installs multiple language TTS, has the advantage of either working in one language or switching between languages. In addition, we have designed a specialized search service that allows students both to search using VocalSe@rch [] as well as to retrieve only fully accessible Web documents. In this way the student can choose to have a subset of search results which respect accessibility guidelines or to access all documents (even those which do not comply). Fig. Vocal tools use case view. Framework functions and the system module. Finally, a number of tools have been designed which allow the teacher and/or course administrator to manage course activities such as creating a new course, selecting a course list of students and publishing lessons.. Conclusion The Commission of the European Communities in the resolution [] invites member states To tap the information society's potential for people with disabilities and, in particular, tackle the removal of technical, legal and other barriers to their effective participation in the knowledge based economy and society. Despite all government policies and the introduction of numerous standards and guidelines concerning the usability, accessibility and universal design of the Internet for the visually disable, as stated earlier in the paper, some digital barriers to using ICT are difficult to overcome.

m-icte00 http://www.formatex.org/micte00 0 0 Thus, even though the Internet today has become a communication media for everybody and the largest distributed digital information space in the world, there is a risk that people who do not have access will miss out on all the advantages and opportunities offered by the information age. Therefore, the Internet could become a new barrier for the disabled increasing the information gap and creating a new digital divide. People with disabilities will benefit from the significant social, cultural and economic benefits of ICT as long as the information and services on the Internet are designed appropriately. ICT offers great benefits to students with disabilities and enables them to participate fully in the social, cultural and economic development of their community. This paper has presented some studies about the accessibility of the e-learning and some tools to give the Internet a voice. These vocal tools have proved to be effective in supporting blind and visually impaired people in using Internet information and communication services especially for educational purposes. Our conclusions suggest that when designing technology for people with disabilities it is necessary not simply to respond to their disadvantages but to take a more comprehensive view of their communicative and social needs as well as considering their overall capacities and knowledge. References [] K. Williamson, S. Wright, & A. Bow, The Internet for the blind and visually impaired, Journal of Computer- Mediated Communication, () (00). [] H.S. Kaye, Computer and Internet Use Among People with Disabilities, Disability Statistics Report (). Washington DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (000). [] L. Johnson, E. Moxon, In Whose Service? Technology, Care And Disabled People: The Case For A Disability Politics Perspective, Disability & Society, (), - (). [] J. Berry, Apart or a Part? Access to the Internet by Visually Impaired and Blind People, With Particular Emphasis on Assistive Enabling Technology And User Perceptions, Information technology and disabilities, Vol. VI No. - (). [] S. Burgstahler, Distance learning: Universal design, universal access, Educational Technology Review, 0() (00). [] S. Kinash, S. Crichton, & W.S Kim-Rupnow, A review of 000-00 literature at the intersection of online learning and disability: Electronic curb-cuts., American Journal of Distance Education, () (00). [] T. Waits, L. Lewis, Distance Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions: 000-00, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, NCES 00-0, Washington, DC (Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs00/00.pdf ) (00). [] D. Schmetzke, Online distance education - "anytime,anywhere' but not for everyone, Information Technology and Disabilities,, () (00). [] J. Clark, A. Bellamy, Internet utilization by persons with disabilities, in Proceedings of the CSUN : th Technology and persons with disabilities Conference, March -0, Los Angeles, California, USA () [0] Royal National Institute for the Blind, Communicating with blind and partially sighted people. Peterborough (00) [] T. Wattenberg, Beyond legal compliance: Communities of advocacy that support accessible online learning, Internet and Higher Education, (00). [] M. Arrigo, et al, VocalSearch: Supporting blind people to have access to the web, in Proceedings of the ICTE00 International Conference on ICT s in Education; - (00). [] M. Arrigo, Tools to give the Internet a Voice, Proceedings of the ICTE00 International Conference on ICT s in Education; - (00). [] J. S. Rhodes, et al, The Usability of Email Subject Lines, WebWord.com - Industrial Strength Usability, Project Summary (00). [] M. Arrigo, Online distance education and visual disability, Proceedings of the ICMTL International Conference on Methods and Technologies for Learning, Palermo, Italy, March -, (00). [] CEC - Commission of the European Communities, eaccessibility improving the access of people with disabilities to the knowledge based society, COUNCIL RESOLUTION on February 00 (00/C /0), Official Journal of the European Union (00).